BREAKING NEWS: ExxonMobil announces eighth oil discovery – Turbot, Longtail reserves estimated at over 500m Barrels

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, June 20, 2018

In what is becoming an extraordinary success rate ExxonMobil announced this morning it has struck oil again this time at the Longtail-1 exploration well.

Oil finds in Guyana’s waters

This discovery will along with the Turbot find raise reserves by over 500 million barrels and in a press release ExxonMobil said “creates the potential for additional resource development in the southeast area of the Stabroek Block”. This represents eight out of ten successful exploratory wells for the Houston based oil giant, in an industry with an average success rate of 20 to 25%.

The press release states that “The well encountered approximately 256 feet (78 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. The well was safely drilled to 18,057 feet (5,504 meters) depth in 6,365 feet (1,940 meters) of water. The Stena Carron drillship began drilling on May 25, 2018. The Longtail-1 well is located approximately 5 miles west of the Turbot-1 well and follows previous world-class discoveries on the Stabroek Block at Liza, Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger and Pacora. Longtail drilling results are under evaluation; however, the combined gross recoverable resources of Turbot and Longtail are estimated to exceed 500 million barrels of oil equivalent.”

The eight discoveries are as follows Liza, Payara, Liza deep, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger and Pacora.  The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres) and located approximately 120 miles (193 kilometres) offshore Guyana.  Oil production is planned to begin in early 2020 with revenues for the country to begin being used for development projects soon after.  Local operator ExxonMobil’s affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) is operator of the Stabroek Block, holding a 45 percent interest, Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 percent interest and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25 percent interest.